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Figure 1. Distribution of the Blue-winged Warbler.

Blue-winged Warbler, adult male, May 2001, Ithaca NY

; photographer Marie Reed

Almost two centuries have elapsed since Alexander Wilson (
Wilson, A. (1808). American ornithology. Philadelphia, PA: Bradford and Inskeep.
Wilson 1808) clarified the taxonomic status of the songbird known then as the Blue-winged Yellow Warbler (Sylvia solitaria). More than 30 years before, George Edwards (
Edwards, G. (1760). Gleanings of natural history. Vol. 2. London, U.K: Royal College of Physicians.
Edwards 1760) confused the first specimen of this species with the Pine Creeper (Pine Warbler [Dendroica pinus]), illustrated by Mark Catesby (
Catesby, M. (1731). The natural history of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands. Vol. 1. London: Mark Catesby.
Catesby 1731). Known by Wilson at the beginning of the nineteenth century as a summer species of sequestered woods, the Blue-winged Warbler benefited later from widespread agricultural uses of the land. Now the species is common in overgrown old fields and brushy swamps throughout its range in eastern North America. The bright-yellow, but easily overlooked, territorial male sings a high-pitched, insectlike Beeee Buzzzz. The duller-colored female skulks in thick undergrowth, except when feeding young.

Prior to the colonization of eastern North America by early European settlers, Blue-wings commuted each spring from Middle America to their primary range in North America, the Ozark Mountains east through the wooded savannas of Tennessee and Kentucky. Blue-wing populations swelled in numbers and expanded in distribution as settlers changed the landscape: cut forests and abandoned fields progressed into habitats that favored this shrubland specialist. In recent years, however, Blue-wing populations have declined in the northeastern United States, along with other shrubland birds, due to regrowth of forests and loss of habitat to urban sprawl.